We decided to get brave and go down towards the watering hole and this guy popped up!Since Hippos kill more people in Africa than any other animal...we left promptly.
Here we are at a Masai Village in Kenya. Brad is jumping with a Masai Warrior...it's a whole macho thing the different tribes do to see who is the "coolest" and best jumper. Brad is higher in this photo because of the cowboy/safari hat. The jumping is actually part of their ancient welcome ceremony.
Here Sharee is in a Masai House. This house will hold 8 or more people. It's made out of cow crap and wood. Cows are the most sacred things in the world to the Masai people. They even trade them for their wives! Each hut belongs to a wive of a warrior. (they can have multiple wives) The huts are situated in a huge circle bordering the village and every night they bring their cows in the middle of the circle to sleep with them. It also provides protection from lions and central place for the cows to crap so they can have material to build more huts! It's pretty cool.
This is Rafeal. We love him! He was our driver/scout/bodyguard from animals. He is a high ranking Masai Warrior in his tribe. He'll come and drive for the camp we stayed at for a month or so and then go back to his village. He does very well as a driver and purchases cows with his money so that he can get more wives.
Best quote from Rafeal...after Brad asked him how much he paid for his second wife, he said, "10 cows but she's only worth 8."
This is one of coolest things we saw. People have went multiple times to Kenya and never saw a Cheetah...people will actually come just to find one. We scouted out a Mom teaching her two young how to hunt...the scene below was amazing. The mom just walked over to this termite hill and looked for prey on the horizon, while the two cubs just sat a rested right next to us as if to say, "Get your pictures because you'll never see us again." Rafeal said that he's never seen anything like it.
The Demars Family has a tradition of caroling on Christmas Eve...do you think being in Africa in the middle of the heat (opposite seasons) would stop them? The families did not know what to do because nobody has ever came up to their huts and started singing...so they grabbed their books and started singing along. It was awesome!
How funny is this? "High technology available"
We were getting gutsy so we parked the Jeep and went up a small hill at dusk to watch the sunset and get a look at this beautiful land. This picture doesn't do much but the surrounding scene was amazing.
This was even more rare than the Cheetahs! There are 40 Black Rhino in the entire region. We were headed home for good and Rafeal got a call on his radio...he put the pedal to the medal for about 10 minutes (out plane was leaving in 40 minutes)...and there it was...the elusive Black Rhino in the wild! It is huge, pre-historic looking, and scary. The picture gives you a good idea of how big it is. You'll also notice that nothing else is around. Everything runs away! It's a creepy solitude feeling in a place where you are usually surrounded by life.
We pulled up to this guy one morning eating a Wilderbeasts. His mom is in the tree above him and he was very protective of his food, staring us down for a bit before continuing to eat.
You can see Brad swamped in the middle of this group. He just recorded a video of them and that was the first time they ever saw themselves...it was an exciting moment.
The Lions were super cool! This one started going for the Jeep right behind us...or so it seemed. He actually just stopped and scratched himself on the bush, but everyone was a bit scared. The come so close to you, well I guess everything does, but Lions will lay in the shade of your Jeep and they'll be an arms length away from you.
We caught these chicas fighting one morning.
Caught these 2 doing "something else" one morning ;)
These were the cutest things ever! They were so curious and excited. Rafeal said they were no more than 2 weeks old. We watched them play and feed for about an hour.
Here's Sharee giving out presents on Christmas. We could not tell if they liked their gifts or were just more curious to see white people.
This guy was walking right next to our Jeep and was clearly not scared of us. He was bigger than the Jeep and Brad whispered to Rafeal "That thing is huge!" Rafeal replied, "He's tiny...watch when he walks over to his Mom in the distance there." (see below!)
Rafeal was right...comparatively, he was tiny.
Here is a Hippo that Sharee pissed off :) He kept following her on the shoreline and wanted nothing to do with her. You can see blood on his side from a fight he just got into. Sharee was provoking it a bit by whistling and clapping.
This might be our best photo. Rafeal's favorite animal is the Girrafe. They are very shy and usually run or walk away. For one reason or another, these ones just stood next to us and starred at us as if they were camouflaged. Rafeal was super excited. Their heads were literally right over us.
This was our last day at the reserve and we could not have asked for a more pleasant send-off.
This is one of coolest things we saw. People have went multiple times to Kenya and never saw a Cheetah...people will actually come just to find one. We scouted out a Mom teaching her two young how to hunt...the scene below was amazing. The mom just walked over to this termite hill and looked for prey on the horizon, while the two cubs just sat a rested right next to us as if to say, "Get your pictures because you'll never see us again." Rafeal said that he's never seen anything like it. 
The Demars Family has a tradition of caroling on Christmas Eve...do you think being in Africa in the middle of the heat (opposite seasons) would stop them? The families did not know what to do because nobody has ever came up to their huts and started singing...so they grabbed their books and started singing along. It was awesome!
How funny is this? "High technology available"
We were getting gutsy so we parked the Jeep and went up a small hill at dusk to watch the sunset and get a look at this beautiful land. This picture doesn't do much but the surrounding scene was amazing.
This was even more rare than the Cheetahs! There are 40 Black Rhino in the entire region. We were headed home for good and Rafeal got a call on his radio...he put the pedal to the medal for about 10 minutes (out plane was leaving in 40 minutes)...and there it was...the elusive Black Rhino in the wild! It is huge, pre-historic looking, and scary. The picture gives you a good idea of how big it is. You'll also notice that nothing else is around. Everything runs away! It's a creepy solitude feeling in a place where you are usually surrounded by life.
We pulled up to this guy one morning eating a Wilderbeasts. His mom is in the tree above him and he was very protective of his food, staring us down for a bit before continuing to eat.
You can see Brad swamped in the middle of this group. He just recorded a video of them and that was the first time they ever saw themselves...it was an exciting moment.
The Lions were super cool! This one started going for the Jeep right behind us...or so it seemed. He actually just stopped and scratched himself on the bush, but everyone was a bit scared. The come so close to you, well I guess everything does, but Lions will lay in the shade of your Jeep and they'll be an arms length away from you.
We caught these chicas fighting one morning.
Caught these 2 doing "something else" one morning ;)
These were the cutest things ever! They were so curious and excited. Rafeal said they were no more than 2 weeks old. We watched them play and feed for about an hour.
Here's Sharee giving out presents on Christmas. We could not tell if they liked their gifts or were just more curious to see white people.
This guy was walking right next to our Jeep and was clearly not scared of us. He was bigger than the Jeep and Brad whispered to Rafeal "That thing is huge!" Rafeal replied, "He's tiny...watch when he walks over to his Mom in the distance there." (see below!)
Rafeal was right...comparatively, he was tiny.
Here is a Hippo that Sharee pissed off :) He kept following her on the shoreline and wanted nothing to do with her. You can see blood on his side from a fight he just got into. Sharee was provoking it a bit by whistling and clapping.
This might be our best photo. Rafeal's favorite animal is the Girrafe. They are very shy and usually run or walk away. For one reason or another, these ones just stood next to us and starred at us as if they were camouflaged. Rafeal was super excited. Their heads were literally right over us.This was our last day at the reserve and we could not have asked for a more pleasant send-off.
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